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Bimbo Breads Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MEXICO CITY – Expansionist Mexican bakery firm Bimbo, run by CEO Daniel Servitje, has made a successful foray into the U.S. market following its $959 million acquisition of rival Sara Lee in late 2011.

The expansion has helped turn Bimbo into the world’s largest baker, with sales of $13.4 billion in 2012 and a presence in 19 countries.

Executives agree that the company’s U.S. sales have helped to sharply boost the Mexico City-based firm’s fortunes – yet entering the world’s largest bakery market did not come without its challenges.

In a presentation during last year’s Latin American marketing event (Latam Media Festival 2012), Bimbo Marketing Director Ricardo Perez conceded that the firm struggled to change the negative image associated with the term ‘bimbo’ in the U.S. Changing this quickly was pivotal as surveys showed moms were unwilling to buy a food brand named Bimbo for their kids.

“The word is an insult in the U.S., so we had to work very hard with marketing research firms, as well as media and creative agencies, to get a positive reaction,” Perez said, adding that Bimbo created ads to change the way the word is pronounced in English to “Beembo” and help consumers get past the word’s negative image.

Just as crucially, it made its “cute and fuzzy” white teddy bear symbol (present in most of its products) a bigger and more relevant image in all its US packaging and TV campaigns. The effort made Bimbo’s packaging cute and kid friendly, helping moms identify the product as good and nutritious for their kids.

This of course, also boosted Servitje’s profile as an executive able to steer his family’s bread empire into a recognized US brand– earning them a big windfall. The company was founded by Daniel Servitje's father Lorenzo Servitje, now 92, and three others in 1954. Daniel Servitje has also led Bimbo through a string of acquisitions in the emerging markets and in China that have also helped sales balloon.

Consequently, the Chicago Executives Club handed Servitje, who with his extended family owns 37% of Bimbo, the 2013 International Executive of the Year Award, making him the first non-US executive to receive it since the organization opened in 1911. The extended family's stake in Bimbo is worth more than $1 billion.

During the awards ceremony on June 5, Servitje highlighted the sustained growth of the Bimbo brand in the US, as well as that of Marinela and Barcel -brands also owned by Bimbo - in the US, noting that Bimbo’s US operations have tripled in size in the past five years.

Servitje added that Bimbo is expanding into new markets after fist entering the US through Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston.

The Executives' Club Chairman Ilene Gordon said of Servitje: "Daniel Servitje is a true global leader; hence, we are very pleased to give him this well-deserved acknowledgement.”